I am really terrible at bees.

[rekasa]

I wish I knew how to do bees properly. >_< How does one get propolis? I don't know how to get any of the combs that are needed or the bees to make them.
I've cracked some wild beehives and got some meadow and valiant bees, and worked at it and now I have a bunch of commons and a few cultivated.
Am I on the right track?
Thanks a lot!

 

[ICountFrom0]

willing to spend some time reading guides? There's a collection of those in my sig.

If you'd rather vid's, go check florastar's bee university.

 

[rekasa]

Awesome, looks like I have some reading to do! I appreciate it, thanks!

 

[Saice]

I too want to learn the why of the bee. I have a bee chest stuff full of the guys. But I think I'll avoid reading to much on them as of yet. I think the draw of bees to me is the whole research and experimentation side of that mod. But a small spoilery question for Mr epic beeness. Will being in the middle of an ocean stop me from doing bee stuff. I'm sure it will make things hard which I am fine with I like challenges but will it make it imposable?

 

[Rikki21]

Unfortunately, bees are biome specific. To breed them, they need to be in their specific biome, otherwise nothing will happen when placed in an apiary.

You can cross-breed to get certain bees (and their products) in a different biome, but that requires you to start breeding in a specific biome to start.

You could always use Mystcraft to help breed though, since you can specify which biomes you want in the world there.

 

[Saice]

Unfortunately, bees are biome specific. To breed them, they need to be in their specific biome, otherwise nothing will happen when placed in an apiary.

You can cross-breed to get certain bees (and their products) in a different biome, but that requires you to start breeding in a specific biome to start.

You could always use Mystcraft to help breed though, since you can specify which biomes you want in the world there.

There is no tech way around the starting biome issue then other then Mystcraft (which im not using)? That is sad but I guess I can always run off to get my base line bees stocked up at remote bee bases then bring them all home once I have hybrids that would work out in the ocean.

 

[Katrinya]

Unfortunately, bees are biome specific. To breed them, they need to be in their specific biome, otherwise nothing will happen when placed in an apiary.

You can cross-breed to get certain bees (and their products) in a different biome, but that requires you to start breeding in a specific biome to start.

You could always use Mystcraft to help breed though, since you can specify which biomes you want in the world there.

Unless something has changed since I last delved into bees, this isn't completely accurate. Many bees spawned via world gen have (used to have?) a temperature/humidity tolerance of +/-1. I bred a few jungle bees in a plains biome in the DW20 pack without any problems.

When you put down an apiary, it'll tell you the temperature and humidity of the biome you're in (for a desert, I think it's Hot/Dry). Putting a bee in a beealyzer should tell you the climate tolerance of the bee, and if you try to breed it in the wrong biome you'll get a "wrong environment"-type message. No idea what sort of temp/humidity goes along with an ocean biome, so you'll have to make an apiary and test it yourself (or, you know, google).

 

[Saice]

so you'll have to make an apiary and test it yourself (or, you know, google).

I avoid googling info on mods that have a research aspect to them. I find google tends to over load you with information you don't really want. hence why I said earlier that I was avoiding reading up on it since I enjoy the research experimentation side of things and just wanted to make sure It was not going to be imposable where I was.

But I do have an apiary that I stole form a poor defenseless villager and plopping it down it says Normal/Normal so looks like oceans might work for me.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

There is no tech way around the starting biome issue then other then Mystcraft (which im not using)? That is sad but I guess I can always run off to get my base line bees stocked up at remote bee bases then bring them all home once I have hybrids that would work out in the ocean.

There is one piece of late-game tech that will let bees run in a hostile environment, it's called an Alveary. However, to do so, you need top-tier bee products which require extensive breeding to achieve.

Having said this... What you need to look at is humidity and temperature. Some bee species have tolerances one way or another in either of these, as well as a preferred climate. Bees tend to prefer the climate they are found in, so forest and meadows bees both tend to prefer Normal/Normal, which is also the climate of an Ocean biome, so they should work. But bees found in the desert would probably prefer a dry and hot climate, and wouldn't do very well out in the ocean.

As another heads up... some bees don't like regular flowers, because flowers don't grow in their native habitat. For these, you need to find an equivalent item which grows in their native habitat that they can pollinate.

As a free tip, without spoilers, if you find a new species, you might want to try breeding a pure strain of that species and keep several drones on hand... just in case you ever want to go back to that strain for some reason.

 

[Saice]

Thanks for the info Shneekey. So in my basic plan now will be to run a bee line on the alveary with the bees I can bread out in the ocean then branch out into the breeds that need the extra support. Sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun. I enjoyed Thaum for its research (and happy to hear it has more coming) so I think Bees are going to be a hobby within my hobby for me.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Thanks for the info Shneekey. So in my basic plan now will be to run a bee line on the alveary with the bees I can bread out in the ocean then branch out into the breeds that need the extra support. Sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun. I enjoyed Thaum for its research (and happy to hear it has more coming) so I think Bees are going to be a hobby within my hobby for me.

If you start with Meadows and Forest Bees, then anything that spawns from them will be able to play nice with an ocean biome. However, if you are wanting some of the more exotic bees... they will require more exotic climates. There might even be one that prefers a Hellish climate...

 

[Saice]

If you start with Meadows and Forest Bees, then anything that spawns from them will be able to play nice with an ocean biome. However, if you are wanting some of the more exotic bees... they will require more exotic climates. There might even be one that prefers a Hellish climate...

Yeah I had a bee form the neither. Stumbled on a hive there and while marveling over it a ghast blew me into lava.

Right now I have a chest with just under 2 pages of bees from my exploring so I have a bit of a stock already. Even have one from the ocean that I found while working on my base. It looks like it is going to be a lot of fun once I get things rolling with it.

 

[Atdiy]

Here's an easy to understand tutorial for the basics:

You centrifuge the honeycombs and depending on what kind of honeycomb it is, you'll get different things. I could make a list if there's none out there?

Here's a link for some of the relationships between the different types of bees and how you can get more than just common and cultivated: http://tymkrs.tumblr.com/post/39777336984/minecraft-bees-hexflower-first-half-of-it

 

[Saice]

Thanks Atdiy but I think half the fun is finding the relationships on my own. For me its not about end game it is about all the trials and pit falls on the way there.

 

[MilConDoin]

Saice: The bee hives you found in the water and in the nether are from Extra Bees.
Vanilla Forestry also has a hellish strain, its sources for the mutation stem from the overworld.
Classical bee hives:

Spoiler

Meadows, Forest, Modest, Tropical, Marshy, Wintry, Ended

Extra Bees bee hives:

Spoiler

Water, Rocky, Nether, Marble

 

[whythisname]

Am I the only one using the Acclimatizer? I almost can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet.

The Acclimatizer is a machine where you put a bee in and then you add

Spoiler

water, sand, lava/blaze powder or Ice/snowballs (and I think some other stuff as well)

to increase the tolerances of a bee.
It basically has a chance to increase the bee's tolerance and the more tolerance a bee has the harder it will be to increase it further. Up to 2 tolerance is doable, but beyond that prepare for having a single bee in there for days on end (not MC days, RL days). This also means that bees with high innate tolerances will have a hard time getting even more tolerant, but bees with low tolerances will be easy to increase a bit.

It might be easier to just breed them with more tolerant species, but if you've only got a few bees of a certain type that you don't want to risk losing, then the Acclimatizer might be a good alternative to breeding in multiple biomes.

I also don't know if there is a difference between the things you can put in the Acclimatizer that serve the same purpose.

Spoiler

For example, I don't know if Ice is more effective at increasing temperature tolerance than Snowballs. I've used both in the machine and I haven't seen any noticeable difference, but that doesn't mean there isn't any.

As for what types of temperatures and humidity there are:

Spoiler

there are 3 degrees of humidity: Arid, Normal and Wet.
and 6 degrees of temperature: icy, cold, normal, warm, hot and hellish.

As long as your bee's tolerances reach whatever your biome has, the bee should work.

Apparently you also need certain biomes to get certain species though, but I've not looked into those beyond seeing it mentioned. It does mean though that even if you increase tolerances you might still not be able to get the bee you want.

 

[Rakankrad]

There is no tech way around the starting biome issue then other then Mystcraft (which im not using)? That is sad but I guess I can always run off to get my base line bees stocked up at remote bee bases then bring them all home once I have hybrids that would work out in the ocean.

If you are using Extra Bees, there IS a tech way around the biomes. Build yourself an Acclimatiser. Use blaze powder or lava cells/cans to increase the temperature, ice or glacial water cans/cells to lower it. For humidity, you water cells/cans or sand. Depending on if you want to raise it or lower it.

Ninja'd. Darn.

 

[Icarus White]

With Extra Bees, there is also something very important you need to know:

The Apiarist's Database is your Very Best Friend, right after the Beealyzer. (Also, look up Frames - they'll boost your honey production so you'll have plenty for beenalysis.)

Seriously, the thing is worth the emerald you need to make it many, many times over, just for consolidating all the biome and evolutionary data you'll get.
It also has an advantage over the beenalyzer: you'll be able to see the colors (if not the names) of "Further Mutation" bees, so if two of your bees can be crossbred, you'll know. See below.
Although there's an odd bug/feature right now where all bees in the evolutionary tables are listed as "Discovered Species" until you actually achieve the mutation. Eh.

Also, squeezing honey drops/honeydew into liquid honey has a small chance of getting you propolis. Mind you, you'll later breed a bee which is far better at getting you the gooey stuff, but if you want some for rubber right now, there you go.

One more thing: the Alveary can't adjust humidity, and certain bees will produce very valuable 'specialties' (most notably, two ingredients for Alvearies), but only in their 'preferred biome' - that is, even if you manage to breed bees that will tolerate anything, they won't produce that special stuff unless they're in their favourite conditions, so plan accordingly. Luckily, there are only three possible humidities - so if you manage to find a place where all three meet, feel free to celebrate.

(If you feel like looking for hints, you could go to the Forestry website. I believe under the bee breeding section, there are a table of hints for how to get some of the more interesting families, including the biome-locked ones. Of course the Database will also list the mutations, but I'm not sure whether it'll list which ones are biome specific. Certainly not before you actually get them)

PS. Blue means recessive, so getting 3x or 4x fertility is usually not worth the effort, except for some very special tricks.

Edit: I found out just now that the mutations database has been 'fixed' in a newer version of ExtraBees - so the current version can be considered a bug. Whoops! It seems I discovered how to make one very overpowered bee through exploits, then... oh well.

 

[Atdiy]

If you are using Extra Bees, there IS a tech way around the biomes. Build yourself an Acclimatiser. Use blaze powder or lava cells/cans to increase the temperature, ice or glacial water cans/cells to lower it. For humidity, you water cells/cans or sand. Depending on if you want to raise it or lower it.

Ninja'd. Darn.

Do you guys know how many of each you need to change their tolerances? Are we talking a few blocks or stacks?

 

[Hitmaniac]

Read lots of guides, watch LPs, etc. Learn about the dominant/recessive traits, how the bee works, etc. At first you want to mutant into new types of bees. After a while you will craft more bee machines and become more advanced.